1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polishing apparatus provided with a polishing pad which polishes a polished material, and more particularly to a polishing apparatus in which polishing pads can be easily and quickly changed.
2. Description of Related Art
In a process of manufacturing semiconductor chips in which circuits are formed on a wafer of semiconductor material, the surface of the semiconductor wafer is polished. In this process, a variety of polishing apparatuses are usually used which are provided with a polishing pad which is stuck on a polishing table and polishes the semiconductor wafer.
When the polishing pads are changed in the above-mentioned conventional polishing apparatus, the used polishing pad must be torn off on the polishing table, and thereby the dust is scattered inside the apparatus. Hence, the process may become complicated because of the cleaning. Moreover, while the polishing pads are changed, the apparatus must stop the whole time. For this reason, it is difficult to increase the number of semiconductor wafers to be polished by the apparatus.